YouTube
YouTube is an American video hosting and sharing website created in February 2005. With eight hundred million unique visitors a month, it is one of the most trafficked websites on the internet along with Facebook and Google. History Although YouTube is often considered one of the early trendsetters in the social media game, other video-hosting platforms like Metacafe and Vimeo had been in existence prior to the launch of YouTube in 2005. According to one of the co-founders Jawed Karim, YouTube was originally envisioned as the video version of the beauty rating site Hot or Not, which has been also credited as the source of inspiration for the social networking service Facebook. The site was founded by three former employees of PayPal, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim on February 14th, 2005 and the first YouTube video titled "Me at the zoo" was uploaded on April 23rd, which featured one of the co-founders Jawed Karim in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The beta version of the site became publicly available in May of that year, followed by its official launch in November 2005. The registered userbase continued to grow rapidly in the following months. By July 2006, the company revealed an impressive record of 65,000 new uploads and 100 million video views per day. In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock; the deal was finalized in mid-November. Redesigns On March 31st, 2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site. In November 2011, the Google+ social networking site was integrated directly with YouTube and the Chrome web browser, allowing YouTube videos to be viewed from within the Google+ interface. In December 2011, YouTube launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to the news feeds of social networking sites. On June 5th, 2013, Google rolled out the new "One Channel" interface for YouTube, enabling all users to customize their channels with a cover photograph and an introductory video. According to Google's official blog post, the "One Channel" could lead to an increase in getting new subscribers and channel visits. 2017 redesign On August 29th, 2017, YouTube redesigned its website, tweaking the logo, interface, and typeface of the website. The logo has been tweaked such that the brand's iconic red play button is in front of the word "YouTube," rather than have the word "Tube" highlighted in red. The company also announced several new features on its blog. New features include the ability to swipe to previous and next videos on the site's mobile app, allowing mobile users to change the speed of a video like desktop users can, and double-tapping to fast-forward or rewind a video. YouTube Music Awards On October 1st, 2013, Google announced its plan to host the first YouTube Music Awards, a live-stream ceremony event to recognize and highlight the most influential musicians of the year. The event, which is to be held at Pier 36 in New York City on November 3rd, will be co-hosted by actor-musicians Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and feature live performances by Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire and Eminem, as well as five music events that will be simulcast from Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow, London and Rio de Janeiro. On October 22nd, YouTube unveiled the list of nominees in six categories for the inaugural event, along with an introductory video in which the co-host Reggie Watts asks the viewers to vote for the winning acts. Google+ comments update On September 24th, 2013, the YouTube Official Blog announced the beta launch of an improved commenting system that is more closely integrated with the Google+ social networking service, which was subsequently implemented across-the-board on November 6th. Upon its release, YouTube's new commenting system was instantly met by criticisms and backlash from the community, mainly for requiring a Google+ account to comment on any video and prioritizing the visibility of comments made by friends on Google+ without having established a significant user base. On November 7th, 2013, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted a comment on the site asking why the Google social networking service was required for commenting. Throughout the day, a number of video bloggers uploaded their own response videos to address the intergration issues in the new commenting system, most notably YouTubers Cr1TiK, somegreybloke, Jon and Gopher. Meanwhile, some YouTubers created short animations to vent their frustration with YouTube's Google+ commenting system. Subscription counter glitch On February 6th, 2017, YouTuber BlackScreenTV discovered a major glitch on the site that counted each unsubscription from a channel as two, which could be easily exploited by trolls to diminish the audience base of popular YouTube channels. To demonstrate the glitch, BlackScreenTV started a livestream session showing the drastic decrease in subscribers on some of YouTube's most popular channels, including PewDiePIe, H3h3Productions, The Young Turks, LeafyIsHere and Keemstar, as well as iDubbbz and Tana Mongeau, who had recently engaged each other in a feud over their use of a racist slur against black people. By February 8th, BlackScreenTV's livestream video had reached the front page of Reddit and 4chan's /pol/ board, further inviting a massive influx of trolls who would repeatedly subscribe and unsubscribe from channels in order to bring the counter down below zero. As a result, the subscription base for a number of popular YouTube channels targeted in the raid dipped into negative numbers. Later that day, YouTube tweeted an official response explaining that the malfunction was prompted by an update implemented on February 6th and the company is working to fix the glitch. By 4:00 p.m. (EST) on February 9th, several tech news outlets reported that the glitch in the subscription counter appears to have been fixed. Extremist video prohibition On August 1st, 2017, YouTube announced that they would implement a feature where extremist and supremacist videos that technically did not violate any rules would be put in a "limited state," meaning they are hidden and cannot make money. An automated system identifies and flags such videos. In their blog post, YouTube announced that "over 75%" of videos of this nature were removed before being flagged by a user. The system, however, is imperfect. On August 24th, YouTuber Philip DeFranco went into some of the problems with the algorithm, including that the algorithm deleted videos dedicated to the war in Syria. The video has over 1 million views (shown below). Also on the 24th, Bloomberg posted an article about the new restrictions. Features The basic features of YouTube consists of uploading videos, watching videos uploaded by other users and interacting with other users via comments and response videos. Unregistered visitors can watch videos without ever signing up for an account, but the registration is required for uploading videos and commenting on other uploads. YouTube initially allowed users to upload long-format videos, but later implemented a ten-minute length limit on all uploads in March 2006 after learning that the majority of videos exceeding the ten minute mark were unauthorized or copyright-infringing materials such as television show episodes and films. Playback In addition to the basic functions of a video-streaming platform, YouTube offers a variety of optional tools to improve the viewing experience, such as closed captioning services, automatic speech recognition, in-video annotations and 3D anaglyphic playback. Embeddable videos The near-ubiquitous presence of YouTube videos on the Internet can be credited to its easy video embedding feature, which allows users to copy and paste the video player object into almost any blog or website that supports HTML. Interactions Registered users (sometimes referred to as YouTubers) of the site can interact with others through a number of different channels, from private messaging and wall posts on the channel page to comments in the video pages and response videos that can be linked to the referenced video. Users can also rank a video or a video comment through an upvoting / downvoting system. Shows and rentals YouTube also runs a section called "Shows," which allows major U.S. entertainment studios and distributors to upload full-length films and TV episodes to the site with advertisement options. In January 2010, YouTube introduced an online film rentals service offering more than 6,000 films, which is available only to users in the US, Canada and the UK as of July 2012. Easter Eggs * Snake game: In July 2010, YouTube released an easter egg feature with its new video player which enables users to launch an impromptu game of Snake by holding down the left and up arrow keys during pause and playback. This feature only works on YouTube video pages without any annotations or advertisements. * Snowflake animation: In December 2011, YouTube added a snowflake button as a holiday special easter egg on its video player. Upon clicking, the feature would trigger animated snowflakes to fall from the top of the video. * 500 Error message: In 2010, YouTube began displaying a 500 Internal Server Error message that read "500 Internal Server Error: Sorry, something went wrong. A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation. If you see them, show them this information" followd by a random code. * Nyan Cat progress bar: In June 2011, YouTube temporarily enabled a custom flash player for the original Nyan Cat page, which displayed an animated miniature Nyan Cat flying across the progress bar with a rainbow trail during playback. * The Wadsworth parameter: In October 2011, YouTube employee and Redditor newtuber enabled the new video URL parameter “&wadsworth=1,” which can be suffixed to any YouTube video URL to load the video at 30% of the total length in reference to The Wadsworth Constant. * Self-subscription: In 2012, YouTube began displaying a mouseover error message that read "No need to subscribe to yourself!" when a user attempted to subscribe to one's own channel. * Psy character sprite: In December 2012, YouTube added an animated character sprite of Psy doing the horse dance on the Gangnam Style video page to commemorate the unprecedented milestone of passing 1 billion views on the site. * Harlem shake search results: In March 2013, YouTube introduced an easter egg for the search option in which typing in "do the harlem shake" would trigger various components of the search results page to wobble in the style of Harlem Shake dancers. * VHS tape mode: In April 2013, YouTube enabled a VHS tape emulator button on a limited selection of videos in homage to the 57th anniversary of the first commercially available videocassette recorder (VCR). Upon clicking, the video quality would be downgraded to match the aesthetics of VHS image resolution, such as white static lines, fuzzy grains, occasional vertical holds and even distortion of images when in pause mode. Premium channels On January 29th, 2013, the advertising industry news blog AdAge published an article reporting that YouTube has a plan to launch paid subscriptions for a select few channels in April. The article included a quote from a Google spokesperson, who stated that the company believed certain types of content require alternative payment models. On the following day, YouTuber PrettyMuchIt uploaded a video in support of the idea, asserting that paid subscriptions could provide users with more options and better content. Also on January 30th, YouTuber Lamarr Wilson uploaded a video in which he criticized the paid subscription model, arguing that no one should have to pay for content on the video-sharing site. On May 9th, YouTube launched the pilot program for its paid subscription service, offering its users free trial access to premium content published by more than 50 channels for the first two weeks, after which a monthly fee ranging from $0.99 to $7.99 would be charged per subscription. In the coming days, the new service was reported on by Yahoo, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and CNET among many others. As of May 10th, there are 54 paid channels available, including Sesame Street, National Geographic, Rap Battle Network, Recipe.TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Impact Since its launch and subsequent rise to prominence, YouTube has played an essential role in the creative process of internet memes in a multitude of ways, foremostly as the ground zero site of countless viral videos and spawning pool of user-generated videos, and secondly as the primary exchange ground for social commentaries and discussions on topical events. The site's strong affinity with both amateur vloggers and mainstream media outlets also gave rise to an uncharted era of citizen journalism, public discourse and internet stardom, thus establishing itself as a hub site of user-generated content. 2013 YouTube study In June 2013, undergraduate media students at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois released a 175-page report on YouTube's most popular content creators and their contributing factors. Conducted over the course of the Spring semester in 2013, the study analyzed the statistical data of YouTube's 241 most viewed channels to deduce a number of commonly observed practices that may contribute to their online popularity. Among its key findings were: * All but one of YouTube's top channels focus on producing non-serial, episodic videos, with MachinimaPrime being the sole exception that serializes its content with a consistent storyline. * The 58 percent majority of YouTube's top channels do not use introductory clips or credit rolls in their videos. The median frequency of jump cuts is at around 9 cuts per minute, the median pace of narrative speech is 150 spoken words per minute, while the median word count in video description stands at around 56.5 words per video. All of these findings suggest the importance of brevity and search engine optimization. * Approximately 34 percent of the analyzed videos feature at least one other collaborator in the description; comedians have the higher rate of peer collaboration with 43 percent of videos being co-hosted or co-produced, while gamers rarely team up with only two percent of gaming videos produced as a result of collaboration. * The median video length for YouTube's top channels is 4 minutes and 19 seconds (4:19); comedy videos have the shortest median video lengths at 3 minutes and 25 seconds (3:25), while fashion/beauty, news commentary and gaming videos have the longest median video lengths at 7 minutes, 44 seconds (7:44), 8 minutes and 55 seconds (8:55) and 9 minutes and 36 seconds (9:36) respectively. * The median number of subscribers for YouTube's top channels is measured at around 1.23 million subscribers and the majority of the top ten channels are run by independent video-bloggers. * The median frequency of new release is at 1.25 videos per week, while the average number of videos uploaded in a week period is just short of three videos per week. Among the top content creators, gaming-related channels have the highest number of 8.31 videos uploaded per week, while comedy channels have the lowest cout of 1.23 videos uploaded per week. * Twitter is the primary means of distributing new video content for YouTube's top channels. On average, YouTubers tweet 7.11 times a day and garner around 4.28 mentions per day. 2018 SXSW interactive interview On March 13th, 2018, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was interviewed by Wired Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Thompson at the South by Southwest Interactive event in Austin, Texas. In the interview, Wojcicki announced that additional information, referred to as "information cues," would be added alongside conspiracy theory videos, which could include passages from alternative sources like Wikipedia. Additionally, Wojcicki revealed that YouTube content moderators were limited to viewing disturbing videos for only four hours each day, saying "I myself have spent a lot of time looking at this content over the past year. It is really hard." Firearm content policy On March 20th, 2018, YouTube announced a new content policy update prohibiting videos used to "sell firearms or certain firearm accessories" or provide "instructions on manufacturing a firearm, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories." That day, the channel Spike's Tactical was suspended from the site, leading the channel's Instagram and Facebook page to post an update criticizing the new policy. On March 21st, Bloomberg reported that a YouTube spokeswoman claimed that the channel was "reinstated after it was mistakenly removed." Meanwhile, the InRange TV Facebook page announced that they would be mirroring their content on PornHub in case their channel was removed from YouTube. Google News Intiative (GNI) On March 20th, 2018, Google released a video announcing the Google News Initiative (GNI), with the state goal to "elevate quality journalism" and "empower news organizations to leverage technology for innovation in newsrooms". On July 9th, 2018, the YouTube Official Blog published an announcement that the video sharing platform was taking steps to support the GNI by annotating conspiracy videos with "authoritative context" using text from online encyclopedias, including Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, and would feature links on search result pages to news sources, including Vox Media, Jovem Pan and India Today. The post revealed that $25 million would be committed to YouTube's GNI efforts. Traffic As of January 2012, YouTube has a Quantcast US score of 3, Alexa Global and US rank of 3, and Compete rank of 4. On January 23rd, 2012, YouTube announced that it was receiving an average of more than four billion views a day on both computers and mobile web, as well as an hourlong worth of footage uploaded per second. To better illustrate the vast numbers and statistics associated with YouTube videos, YouTube launched the site One Hour Per Second in December 2011. See also * YouTube Poop * Replacement Remixes Category:Sites Category:YouTube